Issue Details: First known date: 2020... 2020 ‘Caterpillars of the Commonwealth’ : Dangerous Books in Australia
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'This chapter examines a particular time in Australia’s history of literature and reading, during the 1970s, when protecting ‘community standards’ was paramount. Small but highly vocal groups in the community challenged the reading and study of literature: they thought certain books should be banned from educational libraries, by government censors, and from the English curriculum. This is a study that brings together the concerns of these minority pressure groups as well as an examination of the way in which these groups were successful in making their protest heard enough to influence public discourse. It does so in keeping with the publication trends of the day and in the style or form in which these groups published their views – in newsletters and pamphlets made up of bits and pieces of interest and notes threaded together in ‘toggle and weave.’'

Source: Abstract

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Routledge Companion to Australian Literature Jessica Gildersleeve (editor), London : Routledge , 2020 21550229 2020 anthology criticism

    'In recent years, Australian literature has experienced a revival of interest both domestically and internationally. The increasing prominence of work by writers like Christos Tsiolkas, heightened through television and film adaptation, as well as the award of major international prizes to writers like Richard Flanagan, and the development of new, high-profile prizes like the Stella Prize, have all reinvigorated interest in Australian literature both at home and abroad. This Companionemerges as a part of that reinvigoration, considering anew the history and development of Australian literature and its key themes, as well as tracing the transition of the field through those critical debates. It considers works of Australian literature on their own terms, as well as positioning them in their critical and historical context and their ethical and interactive position in the public and private spheres. With an emphasis on literature’s responsibilities, this book claims Australian literary studies as a field uniquely positioned to expose the ways in which literature engages with, produces and is produced by its context, provoking a critical re-evaluation of the concept of the relationship between national literatures, cultures, and histories, and the social function of literary texts.'

    Source : Publisher's blurb.

    London : Routledge , 2020
    pg. 63-74
Last amended 17 Sep 2024 15:02:23
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